UK's Grain LNG terminal opens new capacity

By OGJ editors HOUSTON, Dec. 3 -- The UK’s National Grid announced the start-up of commercial operations of its second capacity expansion at the company's Isle of Grain LNG import terminal in Kent, near London. Completion of the project expands the terminal’s sendout capacity by more than 50%, to about 59 million cu m/day.

Commissioning of the £310 million (about $489 million) expansion has taken slightly more than 1 month, said the company statement, following arrival of the first commissioning cargo of LNG on Oct. 29.

The expansion provides capacity for new customers E.On Ruhrgas and Iberdrola, together with additional capacity for existing customer Centrica. It marks the end of a period of construction and commissioning with an overall investment by National Grid of more than £800 million and giving Grain LNG the capacity to supply around 20% of UK demand, said the company.

After adding a third, 190,000-cu m full-containment storage tank, Grain now has the largest storage capacity of any terminal in the UK with total LNG storage available of 1 million cu m. The new second unloading jetty can berth and unload Q-Max (260,000 cu m) vessels, the largest available LNG carriers in the world.

National Grid is considering a further expansion, with additional capacity possibly available from winter 2015-16.